Patty Murray: 'Worthwhile Investments' Come From Bipartisan Cooperation On Funding Bills

During a Senate Appropriations Committee markup meeting on Thursday, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) spoke about TOPIC.

Transcript

00:00she might like to make. Thank you very much Chair Collins and thank you to

00:04Senator Murkowski and Senator Merkley our interior subcommittee leads and

00:08Senator Hyde-Smith and Gillibrand our thud subcommittee leaders for working so

00:13hard and working together to hammer out two bipartisan bills may not be the

00:18bills I would have written on my own certainly more I would love to see us do

00:22and investments in accountability measures I'd like to see but these

00:27bills are serious bipartisan compromises that reject many of the truly harmful

00:32cuts Trump and House Republicans are pushing for and maintains crucial

00:37programs that help make sure folks back home have a roof over their heads safe

00:42reliable transportation and clean air and water in the interior bill we were able

00:47to put together a bill that protects public lands and national parks invests in

00:52fighting wildfires helps live up to our obligations to tribes and invests in

00:57critical work protecting our environment and our families and in the thud bill we

01:01were able to maintain crucial investments to address the housing crisis reject

01:06Trump's deep cuts to rental assistance programs that make sure millions of

01:10families have a roof over their head and invest in transportation

01:14infrastructure across the board including a much-needed increase to hire

01:18more air traffic controllers these are worthwhile investments and they show

01:23just what is possible if we work together and exactly why a bipartisan

01:28process is a better path for everyone than the Trump bills House Republicans seem

01:33intent on writing or another slush fund CR now Russ vote may want to break this

01:38process and make it more partisan he said so he may want to set Congress on a track

01:44for a shutdown but we on this committee can reject that partisan vision that hurts

01:49working families everywhere and we can reject the painful cuts and policies

01:53they're trying to inflict in our communities just as these bills do in fact I

01:58think most of us here recognize that we have to reject that path because at the

02:02end of the day passing funding bills here in the Senate takes 60 votes and that

02:07means that the Trump vote path is choosing a dead end and a shutdown I won't

02:12pretend the work ahead is going to be easy I think every one of us knows

02:16compromise means doing hard work making hard choices and it requires trust

02:22something that unfortunately continues to be chipped away at I hope that

02:27trajectory can be reversed and I look forward to more discussion on each of the

02:31bills before us today thank you